Skip to main content
2024

Clariant Employees Embrace Generative AI Using Amazon Bedrock

Overview

Clariant’s specialty chemicals are trusted by businesses across numerous industries and used by consumers in hundreds of products every day. An innovator and long-time Amazon Web Services (AWS) customer, its early adoption of Amazon Bedrock is helping the company drive research and development (R&D), increase efficiency, and deliver new solutions to clients to help them meet sustainability goals. With access to powerful functionality within a secure environment, its employees globally can harness the potential of generative AI through their valued colleague Clarita.

The work we’ve done together with AWS over the past years in moving all our data and many applications into the cloud has been a very important prerequisite, allowing us to now move fast [on] generative AI.

Chris Hansen

Chief Corporate Development Officer, Clariant

Staying Ahead in a High-Tech Market

Specialty chemicals company Clariant might be a market leader, but most consumers won’t have heard the name or be able to pinpoint a product, as Chris Hansen, Clariant’s chief corporate development officer, says. Its technology, however, can be found in hundreds of everyday products—from shampoos to smartphones to sofas.

The Switzerland-based multinational applies its expertise in industrial chemistry to find innovative and sustainable solutions for clients, which include automotive manufacturers, healthcare organizations, food and beverage brands, and more. “I’ve always been passionate about challenging how things are being done,” says Hansen. Which is why he and his colleagues, “quickly saw that generative AI could have transformational potential.”

Setting the Security Standard

The first hurdle for Clariant was data protection. While it wanted to give employees access to generative AI tools, as a business focused on innovation and with heavy investment in R&D it needed to ensure intellectual property remained in a secure environment. Clariant engaged with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help develop a solution. Using Amazon Bedrock, which is the easiest way to build and scale generative AI applications with foundation models, the company created a generative AI assistant called Clarita.

“We wanted to run generative AI in an environment that we ensured would keep our data in our hands, our data confidential,” says César Chocou, head of IT, supply chain management and operations solutions at Clariant. “We chose AWS because, through Amazon Bedrock, it provided us with a secure platform to access multiple models. The way we interacted with AWS was also a key differentiator. From the very outset, we started working together with a team helping us gain knowledge, gain confidence, and quickly start to understand what the possibilities were.”
We chose AWS because, through Amazon Bedrock, it provided us with a secure platform to access multiple models. The way we interacted with AWS was also a key differentiator. From the very outset, we started working together with a team helping us gain knowledge, gain confidence, and quickly start to understand what the possibilities were.

César Chocou

Head of IT, Supply Chain Management and Operations Solutions at Clariant

From Generative AI Experiment to Valued Colleague

With Clarita up and running, Clariant employees began exploring generative AI use cases. “From summarizing documents, from synthesizing patents, from working in areas like toxicology, R&D,” says Chocou. “People all over the world—the pioneers of generative AI at Clariant—have already started figuring out what the technology can do for them.” And through Clarita Coffee Sessions, staff share what they’ve done to help others see what’s possible and spark further innovation you need.”

“We’re getting great feedback from people,” says Chocou. “They’re saving time, accelerating results, and increasing quality in doing it.” Hansen adds, “Clarita is probably the most well-known colleague and one of the most liked colleagues at Clariant because she’s there and she helps anyone with any problems they have on any given day. She’s super knowledgeable, very capable, self-confident, but always there to help whatever you need.”

The Partnership Behind a Pioneer

Clariant, a longstanding AWS customer, was an early adopter of Amazon Bedrock. “The work we’ve done together with AWS over the past years in moving all our data and many applications into the cloud has been a very important prerequisite, allowing us to now move fast [on] generative AI,” says Hansen. This is giving the chemicals a competitive edge as it applies generative AI to both its own and its customers biggest challenges, with support from AWS.

Hansen says, “I think the start of a successful partnership is when you reach out and you get an immediate response. You have a partner who is interested to understand and take on this challenge together with you. And this was very much the case with AWS from the very beginning.”